59You have seen, O LORD, the wrong done me;
Oh, vindicate my right!
60You have seen all their malice,
All their designs against me;
61You have heard, O LORD, their taunts,
All their designs against me,
50 “Until the LORD looks down from heaven And beholds
51 my affliction.
The LORD has brought me grief.”
62The mouthings and pratings of my adversaries
Against me all day long.
63See how, at their ease or at work,
I am the butt of their gibes.
64Give them, O LORD, their deserts
According to their deeds.
65Give them anguishc of heart;
Your curse be upon them!
66Oh, pursue them in wrath and destroy them
From under the heavens of the LORD!
4
Alas!
The gold is dulled,a
Debased the finest gold!
The sacredb gems are spilled
At every street corner.
2The precious children of Zion;
Once valued as gold—
Alas, they are accounted as earthen pots,
Work of a potter’s hands!
3Even jackals offer the breast
And suckle their young;
But my poor people has turned cruel,
Like ostriches of the desert.
4The tongue of the suckling cleaves
To its palate for thirst.
Little children beg for bread;
None gives them a morsel.
5Those who feasted on dainties
Lie famished in the streets;
Those who were reared in purple
Have embraced refuse heaps.
6The guiltc of my poord people
Exceeded the iniquityc of Sodom,
Which was overthrown in a moment,
Without a hand striking it.
7Her elect were purer than snow,
Whiter than milk;
Their limbs were ruddier than coral,
Their bodiesa were like sapphire.
8Now their faces are blacker than soot,
They are not recognized in the streets;
Their skin has shriveled on their bones,
It has become dry as wood.
9Better off were the slain of the sword
Than those slain by famine,
a-Who pined away, [as though] wounded,
For lack of-a the fruits of the field.
10With their own hands, tenderhearted women
Have cooked their children;
Such became their fare,
In the disaster of my poord people.
11The LORD vented all His fury,
Poured out His blazing wrath;
He kindled a fire in Zion
Which consumed its foundations.
12The kings of the earth did not believe,
Nor any of the inhabitants of the world,
That foe or adversary could enter
The gates of Jerusalem.
13It was for the sins of her prophets,
The iniquities of her priests,
Who had shed in her midst
The blood of the just.
14They wandered blindly through the streets,
Defiled with blood,
So that no one was able
To touch their garments.
15“Away! Unclean!” people shouted at them,
“Away! Away! Touch not!”
So they wandered and wandered again;
For the nations had resolved:
“They shall stay here no longer.”
16eThe LORD’s countenance has turned away from them,
He will look on them no more.
They showed no regard for priests,
No favor to elders.
17Even now our eyes pine away
In vain for deliverance.
As we waited, still we wait
For a nation that cannot help.
18Our steps were checked,
We could not walk f-in our squares.-f
Our doom is near, our days are done—
Alas, our doom has come!
19Our pursuers were swifter
Than the eagles in the sky;
They chased us in the mountains,
Lay in wait for us in the wilderness.
20The breath of our life, the LORD’s anointed,
Was captured in their traps—
He in whose shade we had thought
To live among the nations.
21Rejoice and exult, Fair Edom,
Who dwell in the land of Uz!
To you, too, the cup shall pass,
You shall get drunk and expose your nakedness.
22Your iniquity, Fair Zion, is expiated;
He will exile you no longer.
Your iniquity, Fair Edom, He will note;
He will uncover your sins.
5
Remember, O LORD, what has befallen us;
Behold, and see our disgrace!
2Our heritage has passed to aliens,
Our homes to strangers.
3We have become orphans, fatherless;
Our mothers are like widows.
4We must pay to drink our own water,
Obtain our own kindling at a price.
5We are hotlya pursued;
Exhausted, we are given no rest.
6We hold out a hand to Egypt;
To Assyria, for our fill of bread.
7Our fathers sinned and are no more;
And we must bear their guilt.
8Slaves are ruling over us,
With none to rescue us from them.
9We get our bread at the peril of our lives,
Because of the b-sword of the wilderness.-b
10Our skin glows like an oven,
With the fever of famine.
11Theyc have ravished women in Zion,
Maidens in the towns of Judah.
12Princes have been hanged by them;c
No respect has been shown to elders.
13Young men must carry millstones,
And youths stagger under loads of wood.
14The old men are gone from the gate,
The young men from their music.
15Gone is the joy of our hearts;
Our dancing is turned into mourning.
16The crown has fallen from our head;
Woe to us that we have sinned!
17Because of this our hearts are sick,
Because of these our eyes are dimmed:
18Because of Mount Zion, which lies desolate;
Jackals prowl over it.
19But You, O LORD, are enthroned forever,
Your throne endures through the ages.
20Why have You forgotten us utterly,
Forsaken us for all time?
21Take us back, O LORD, to Yourself,
And let us come back;
Renew our days as of old!
22For truly, You have rejected us,
Bitterly raged against us.
Take us back, O LORD, to Yourself,
And let us come back;
Renew our days as of old!
a Chaps. 1–4 are alphabetical acrostics, i.e., the verses begin with the successive letters of the Heb. alphabet. Chap. 3 is a triple acrostic. In chaps. 2–4 the letter pe precedes the ‘ayin.
b-b Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
c-c Or (ironically) “What a glutton”; cf. Prov. 23.20–21.
d Meaning of parts of vv. 14 and 15 uncertain.
e-e Lit. “My heart has turned over within me”; cf. Exod. 14.5; Hos. 11.8.
f-f Emendation yields “Oh, bring on them what befell me, / And let them become like me!”
a Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
b I.e., the Temple.
c Lit. “(Tent of) Meeting.”
d-d I.e., He made His plans.
e-e Lit. “among the nations.”
f Heb. torah, here priestly instruction; cf. Jer. 18.18; Hab. 2.11; Mal. 2.6.
g-g Lit. “My liver spills on the ground.”
h-h Lit. “the daughter of my people”; so elsewhere in poetry.
i-i Emendation yields “compare.”
j These gestures were intended to ward off the calamity from the viewer; cf., e.g., Jer. 18.16 and note; Job 27.23.
k-k Lit. “We have attained, we have seen.”
l-l Emendation yields “Cry aloud.”
m The root has this meaning in Arabic; others “dandled.”
a-a Emendation yields “whom the Lord has shepherded with.”
b Taking rosh as equivalent to resh.
c-c Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
d Lit. “to”; emendation yields “rather than”; cf. Joel 2.13.
e Lit. “the daughter of my”; so frequently in poetry.
f-f Emendation yields:
a Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
b Emendation yields “precious.”
c I.e., punishment.
d See note at 3.48.
e Meaning of line uncertain.
f-f Or “With long strides.”
a Lit. “on our neck”; meaning of Heb. uncertain.
b-b Or “heat (cf. Deut. 28.22) of the wilderness”; meaning of Heb. uncertain.
c I.e., the slaves of v. 8.
Ecclesiastes
1 The words of Koheletha son of David, king in Jerusalem.
2Utter futility!— said Koheleth—
Utter futility! All is futile!
3What real value is there for a man
In all the gainsb he makes beneath the sun?
4One generation goes, another comes,
But the earth remains the same forever.
5The sun rises, and the sun sets—
And glidesc back to where it rises.
6Southward blowing,
Turning northward,
Ever turning blows the wind;
On its rounds the wind returns.
7All streams flow into the sea,
Yet the sea is never full;
To the place [from] which they flow
The streams flow back again.d
8All such things are wearisome:
No man can ever state them;
The eye never has enough of seeing,
Nor the ear enough of hearing.
9Only that shall happen
Which has happened,
Only that occur
Which has occurred;
There is nothing new
Beneath the sun!
10Sometimes there is a phenomenon of which they say, “Look, this one is new!”— it occurred long since, in ages that went by before us. 11The earlier ones are not remembered; so too those that will occur later e-will no more be remembered than-e those that will occur at the very end.
12I, Koheleth, was king in Jerusalem over Israel. 13I set my mind to study and to probe with wisdom all that happens under the sun.— An unhappy business, that, which God gave men to be concerned with! 14I observed all the happenings beneath the sun, and I found that all is futile and pursuitf of wind:
15A twisted thing that cannot be made straight,
A lack that cannot be made good.
16I said to myself: “Here I have grown richer and wiser than any that ruled before me over Jerusalem, and my mind has zealously absorbed wisdom and learning.” 17And so I set my mind to appraise wisdom and to appraise madness and folly. And I learned—that this too was pursuit of wind:
18For as wisdom grows, vexation grows;
To increase learning is to increase heartache.
2 I said to myself, “Come, I will treat you to merriment. Taste mirth!” That too, I found, was futile.
2Of revelry I said, “It’s mad!”
Of merriment, “What good is that?”
3I ventured to tempt my flesh with wine, and to grasp folly, while letting my mind direct with wisdom, to the end that I might learn which of the two was better for men to practice in their few days of life under heaven. 4I multiplied my possessions. I built myself houses and I planted vineyards. 5I laid out gardens and groves, in which I planted every kind of fruit tree. 6I constructed pools of water, enough to irrigate a forest shooting up with trees. 7I bought male and female slaves, and I acquired stewards. I also acquired more cattle, both herds and flocks, than all who were before me in Jerusalem. 8I further amassed silver and gold and treasures of kings and provinces; and I got myself male and female singers, as well as the luxuries of commoners—coffersa and coffers of them. 9Thus, I gained more wealth than anyone before me in Jerusalem. In addition, my wisdom remained with me: 10I withheld from my eyes nothing they asked for, and denied myself no enjoyment; rather, I got enjoyment out ofb all my wealth. And that was all I got out of my wealth.
11Then my thoughts turned to all the fortune my hands had built up, to the wealth I had acquired and won—and oh, it was all futile and pursuit of wind; there was no real value under the sun! 12cFor what will the man be like who will succeed d-the one who is ruling-d over what was
